how accurate is fertility friend

[j2015]

I have read a few posters saying that temping to see when you ovulate isn't as accurate as we think.. I was just wondering if someone can elaborate? I have been trying to find any information about how charting can be flawed but I am not finding much. I currently use FF but I would like to know how accurate or flawed this can be. I think I will continue temping but would like to know how serious I should take it all.

[carmella_marie]

I've used FF for 6 years and it's always been very accurate for when I ovulated. It can only narrow it down to the day so a 24 hour window isn't helpful if you're trying for O+12 but I don't think that's a good sway tactic anyway.

Temping won't really help you timing BD attempts because temps will only tell you after you've ovulated, not when you're about to. I have used FF as a birth control method for 6 years successfully achieving and avoiding pregnancy. I use a barrier method until temps confirm O and then nothing after that until AF.

[j2015]

I usually just use FF to ensure that I did O and to see a pattern I.E **I seem to ovulate between CD 18-19 but I read a few posters saying FF isn't as accurate as one thinks and I was just wondering what they meant by that

[ksmom]

FF can be pretty accurate BUT it is just calculated via an algorithm and it's accuracy is only as good as the person using it. If a person isn't consistent in what time they take their BBT or they don't input enough info, then FF may be inaccurate. Even if someone perfectly input their temps, FF can still be off by a few days. It is not an exact science. If you look at my chart in my siggy, you will see that I did not have a temp rise until CD28 but clearly I O'ed before then because I got a BFP two days later (FF put my O date as CD27 before I had to override it). I've charted on FF for the past 5 years and most of the time it has been accurate for me on when ovulation happened +/- a couple of days with the exception of the aforementioned cycle. Charting your temps is still way better than just going by OPKs and CM.

[Beau82]

I think what they probably mean is that temping alone is not 100% accurate. If you have a restless night, or sleep in a colder room than usual, wake up earlier than normal, etc. All of that can contribute to your temp being higher or lower than it normally would if everything was the same as always. Also, your body can gear up to ovulate without actually releasing an egg.
So ideally, you should use other ways (OPKs, track cm and cp, etc) to predict or confirm ovulation.
Does that make sense?

[Beau82]

I mean other ways along with temping.

[atomic sagebrush]

In real live studies done by sciency guys with ultrasound machines and blood tests that could actually pin down the day of ovulation without question, even people who were experts with temping and charting could only guess their day of ovulation right one out of 3 times. They could get it within a 3 day window, but could not tell what day was actually O day any closer than 33% of the time. This is why when using natural family planning as birth control, you have to see 3 days of temp rises above to know you have ovulated. And even then it is NOT meant to tell you what day you ovulated and no one ever said it is supposed to be used that way.

Temping and charting is great for what it is really meant for - to help achieve pregnancy or prevent it. But for timing as a method of gender swaying, it's junk. It doesn't work and the people who say it does or did for them on the basis of a chart are incorrect.

There are a few different things that come into play - one is just that it's possible to have a weird night where you sleep funny and have a day that's warmer or cooler. So on a day you should have seen a temp dip or a temp rise, that is not reflected in your temps that month and then you have to still see those 3 high temps above coverline even though you may have oed a day earlier than you think.

Another thing that can happen is your hormones are a little lower or higher one month or go up or down a little slower or faster one month than in another, and this may make for a slow rise, or a lack of temp dip.

Or, your body may gear up to O, then stop for a day or two or longer, and then pop out an egg. Or it can pop out TWO eggs and this makes temps weird. Some researchers believe that many women release 2 eggs quite regularly. Hormones, and thus, temps, would be different than the "classic" chart that some people expect when using timing methods.

Another thing that can happen, and I think this just happened to someone on here this past week and it may have been you, j, is that high temps in the early part of the cycle can trick the algorithm that FF uses and then coverlines don't develop and so it may be confusing.

Another thing that happens A LOT is that sway diets and supps CAN change the O patterns hugely. So people track O patterns for months on end, expect that they will do a certain thing, and then in the month they start trying, they also often start diet and supps (or the diet and supps start to work) and so the pattern is different from what it "normally" is. Stress and illness can also do this.

[atomic sagebrush]

I think what they probably mean is that temping alone is not 100% accurate. If you have a restless night, or sleep in a colder room than usual, wake up earlier than normal, etc. All of that can contribute to your temp being higher or lower than it normally would if everything was the same as always. Also, your body can gear up to ovulate without actually releasing an egg.
So ideally, you should use other ways (OPKs, track cm and cp, etc) to predict or confirm ovulation.
Does that make sense?

Even with temping and charting plus CM/CP accuracy only rose to 66% - 2 out of 3 days they could pinpoint O.

The important thing I want you guys to take away from all this is that it just IS NOT possible that people most of whom are not experts in NFP methods, are able to pin down their day of ovulation, let alone the hour, like they claim on the other swaying sites. It's just not possible to do it with existing technology.

NFP is GREAT for achieving pregnancy or avoiding pregnancy. It is not (and was never meant to be) a method of pinpointing ovulation down to the day or hour.

[j2015]

Thank you so much for the information.. yes it was me with the crazy chart last week that I just completely gave up on. I mainly temp to make sure that I actually did ovulate because there have been a few times that FF said I did not ovulate. Do you recommend charting? Not for swaying or family prevention since it can't even confirm ovulation until it has already happened.. just solely to ensure ovulation is taking place every month.

[atomic sagebrush]

If you're getting AF, in a regular cycle that is relatively similar to what you normally have, then the odds are 99% that you ovulated.

I don't recommend or NOT recommend it. I do think it adds a lot of stress and confusion but at the same time I know it can be reassuring to see that you did ovulate. It's totally up to you guys.